The Central Investigation Department of the National Police of Ukraine has entered information about the surveillance by unknown persons of journalists from Schemes: Corruption in Details, an investigative program jointly run by local television station Pershy and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, a U.S. government funded broadcaster, into the unified register of pretrial investigations.
“On Feb. 22, 2019, the National Police of Ukraine received a statement from a film crew journalist from Schemes (the editor of the project is Mykhailo Tkach) about a crime committed against him, namely, obstructing his lawful professional activities as a journalist. The complaints say that unknown persons have been carrying out surveillance of the film crew in cars in Kyiv for several months. On Feb. 21, 2019 the film crew was blocked by these cars, because of which the journalist could not complete her editorial task,” National Police Spokesman Yaroslav Trakalo said on Facebook on Feb. 26.
“Any attempts or methods of pressure on journalists, even in a veiled form, are unacceptable. All evidence provided to the police will be carefully studied, and the fact should receive a proper legal assessment and reaction from law enforcement officers,” Trakalo said.
As earlier reported, the security firm Delta-Donbas LLC on Feb. 25 denied charges that it following or hindering the work of investigative journalists from Schemes.
“The Delta-Donbas company denies any allegations of surveillance. The guards’ actions were open and aimed at anticipating possible danger to life and health from unknown persons who systematically conduct covert surveillance. An unknown person’s actions interfere with the privacy of an individual and collect information in an unlawful way,” the security firm said in an official statement in response to the charge made by journalists from Schemes on Feb. 24.
Delta-Donbas said unidentified persons over the past few months have been observing and covertly filming protected objects — the office Systems Capital Management (SCM – owned by Ukrainian businessman Rinat Akhmetov, who is the largest stakeholder in Delta-Donbas) and the private residence of the company’s shareholder — without identifying themselves as media representatives.
In this case, the security company said that, if necessary, it will assist law enforcement agencies in investigating the incident.
